Moving back to center because of Andrew Bynum's injury, the 7-foot All-Star produces 31 points and 14 rebounds in Lakers' victory over Knicks.

Ready or not, Pau Gasol was back in a familiar position.

Andrew Bynum's absence for the next eight to 12 weeks because of a torn medial collateral ligament in his right knee made Gasol the obvious candidate to move from power forward to center, where he played 48 games for the Lakers last season after arriving via trade from Memphis.

Gasol got off to a strong start Monday against the undersized New York Knicks, collecting 31 points and 14 rebounds primarily against 6-foot-9 power forward David Lee in a 126-117 Lakers win.

Recently selected as a reserve for his second All-Star game, Gasol seemed at home at power forward this season, averaging 17.6 points and nine rebounds a game coming into Monday.

How will he do against the bigger, brawnier types?

"There are situations that obviously will be a challenge -- Shaq [Shaquille O'Neal], Yao [Ming]," Lakers Coach Phil Jackson said. "Those kind of guys that have Pau probably by 30, 40 pounds are going to be a little more difficult. But he's very nifty and he has the ability to do things against them."

Gasol, listed at 7 feet and 250 pounds, helped lead the Lakers to the top record in the Western Conference and into the NBA Finals last season, though he struggled there against the Boston Celtics.

He made 12 of 17 shots Monday night and added five assists.

"With Andrew going down, we lost that post presence that he's been giving us so well the last two to three weeks," Gasol said. "I play center when Andrew's on the bench and I'm in the post a lot. I feel good playing that position. I adjusted to the power forward position well and I'll go back to it as soon as we get Andrew back."

Lamar Odom took Gasol's spot at power forward, appearing in the starting lineup for only the second time this season.

He had six points and 14 rebounds Monday and will do "very well" in transitioning back to starter's status, Jackson predicted. Including the playoffs, Odom started all 98 games in which he played last season.

Pau Gasol is underrated (by some) because he is a fck'n ninja. He'll kill you every time, and you won't even hear him coming. He's not a loud player, he won't get into trash talking, fights or in any other player's face. He won't have amazing quarters when he drops 25 points. He won't do flashy dunks or anything, but he'll drop 7, 9 points per quarter. He'll sink a couple jumpers, a hook, maybe an easy dunk and dish out a couple assists per quarter. So most of the time you don't even notice he's in the game, and by the end of the match he'll have twenty points, 5-7 assists and around 10 rebs without making a show of it.
I'm a big Pau follower, and I usually focus on his game, and even so, there are long periods of the game when I think he's doing nothing. Then you see the stats and I'm usually really surprised, like "when the heck did he score ten points, get five rebounds and 3 assists??!"

Dirk already won an MVP, and Yao gets his yearly injury that prevents him from being in the running.

We all know that it all starts with your big man. It's not about scoring 30 pts a game. It's about holding your own in the post, making passes from the post, and drawing defenders in to open things up from your 3. Big men have the biggest impact on the game for everybody.